After back-to-back Maiden Special Weight and Allowance tallies at Saratoga, LEA jumped into graded stakes and placed in the Hawthorne Derby-G3. Well back in this 1 1/8-mile turf event after being four wide into the first turn, this 3-year-old colt by FIRST SAMURAI angled inside on the final turn and continued to close on the frontrunners through the lane to finish third. A homebred of Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider, LEA ran 1:40 1/5, just 2/5’s off the course record, in his maiden score.
